Carl Anton Larsen

Carl Anton Larsen was born in Østre Halsen, a village near Larvik, in 1860. He was the son of a sea captain and went to sea at the age of nine. He became interested in whaling and learned the skills of hunting and sailing. He became a shipmaster at the age of 21 and bought a share of an old barque called Freden. He started hunting bottlenose whales in the North Sea and later switched to the larger rorquals in the Arctic. He was hired by Christen Christensen, a whaling magnate from Sandefjord, to lead an expedition to Antarctica in 1892. He sailed on the Jason, a former sealing ship, and explored the Weddell Sea and the Antarctic Peninsula. He discovered the Larsen Ice Shelf, which was named after him, and found fossilized wood on Seymour Island, proving that Antarctica once had a warmer climate. He also visited South Georgia and saw the potential for whaling there. He returned to Antarctica for two more seasons, making more geographical discoveries and harpooning some right whales. He then worked as a manager of a whaling station in Finnmark, northern Norway, where he gained valuable experience in the modern whaling industry. In 1901, he joined the Swedish Antarctic Expedition led by Otto Nordenskjöld as the captain of the Antarctic, a steamship. He assisted the scientific program of the expedition and visited South Georgia again in 1902. He decided to establish a whaling station there and obtained a lease from the British government. He founded Grytviken, the first permanent settlement on the island, in 1904. He also became a British citizen in 1910. He ran the whaling station until 1914, when he retired due to ill health. He moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he lived until 1924. He died of a heart attack on board his ship, the C.A. Larsen, while sailing in the Ross Sea. He was buried at Grytviken Cemetery, next to his wife who had died in 1922. He was survived by six children, some of whom continued his whaling business. He was a pioneer of Antarctic whaling and exploration, and left a lasting legacy in the region.